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During the last two years Olav Lundanes has been at five long training camps in Estonia, but he isn’t finished with his preparations. “There is still more to work on,” Olav Lundanes tells.

Really?– Yes. When I come to Estonia on Friday this week, I will have two orienteering training sessions in the forest before the Championships start for me. One of them will be at competition speed, the other one will be at lower speed. These will be important trainings, just to get the perfect flow.”

In Strömstad last year he won gold on both Long and Relay and silver on Middle. This year, one medal in the same disciplines is his goal.

Big change from last yearThe Norwegian has had 50 to 70 training sessions in Estonia in the last two years. He has been to a lot of camps, both with the national team and on his own.

The terrain in Estonia: it’s not like it was last year in Sweden?– Everything is totally different. The only thing that is common is the marshes and here you have to run around them. In the forests in Estonia there is very little visibility, even when the trees are less close to each other. The formations are also a bit unclear, with rather diffuse edges to the green. There are few definite details. You have to get a bit used to not being so sure.

Used to feeling unsureA little more than one week ago, Lundanes was the fastest on the last leg at Jukola, but he didn’t feel that satisfied. He had made a mistake and didn’t feel in the best shape in the morning. The 29-year-old feels he is now getting into better shape and that the technical side, especially running in a specific direction, is getting better too.

Not feeling 100 per cent sure about form and performance is something that is not new for him ahead of a championships, just like the first time that he had a big success.
– Two weeks before WOC in 2010 I made a huge mistake at an event at Nordvestgaloppen in Norway, he says.
At WOC just afterwards he won his first Long title. Two year later he won the same distance at WOC in Switzerland. That year he was very confident with everything.
– But the norm for the recent years has been to feel a bit of unsureness, he says.

Last year his navigation was first class, but he got an injury at Tiomila that meant that he couldn’t run much for several weeks.

A move eastThe preparations for this year’s WOC have mainly been done in Finland. At the end of September last year, he and his partner Ida Marie Næss Bjørgul moved to Tampere.
– It has been good to come to a new environment. It is also very well organised, says Olav.

Olav Lundanes is running this year for the Finnish club Paimion Rasti Photo: Erik Borg